1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to desmutagenic substances and their production process. The desmutagenic substances according to the present invention can effectively inactivate mutagens, namely, substances capable of inducing mutation such as nitroallene or pyrolysate mutagens of food.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, as a result of finding of the fact that the mutagen has a high mutual relation with carcinogenesis, studies for the mutagen have been zealously made by researchers in food or related industries. The mutagen, as is well recognized in the art, has a function of inducing mutation when it acts on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
The mutagens or the substances capable of providing such mutagens occur everywhere in our daily life. One of them is an environmental pollutant such as nitroallene or the like, typically dinitropyrene, for example. Another one is a pyrolysate mutagen of food such as amino acid contained therein. The other mutagens include, for example, a browning substance produced during cooking of food, a tar of tobaccos and the like. These substances are generally recognized to be a very strong mutagen or mutagen-providing substance.
Particularly, dinitropyrene which has been recently found to exist in exhaust gas of diesel engines, along with benzopyrene, necessitate taking a counter-measure to inactivate their mutagenicity. This is because, among numerous environmental pollutants, they have the strongest carcinogenicity as a result of their high mutagenicity. It is reported in the literature that dinitropyrene is a remarkably stable substance and, in animal experiments, it can cause a cancer in an amount of about 80 ng/kg.
Hitherto, there were proposed several methods which were considered to be effective in an inactivation of the mutagens described above. For instance, they include: